Adding Your Google Apps / Gmail Account to Outlook

If you have just setup a Google Apps account through Silicon Dales, or you have an existing Google Apps or Gmail account that you’d like to access using any version of Microsoft Outlook, including Outlook 2013 on Windows 8.1, or an older version of Outlook on an older version of Microsoft Windows, the instructions below will get things up and running.

Note that in almost every instance, we recommend using IMAP for the enhanced syncing capabilities.

Consider using webmail all the time. The change may be difficult, but it is totally worth it once you’ve made the leap, particularly if your computer decides to bork one day, taking all your Outlook profiles with it…

How to Setup Outlook with your Google Apps / Gmail Account

Login to Webmail on your new or existing Google Apps account. You can login here.

Click the little “cog” symbol at the top right. This will reveal a drop-down menu.

On the drop down, select “Settings”

On the settings screen, select the tab “Forwarding and POP/IMAP”

Here is where you control the POP / IMAP access. Remember before where I said “we recommend IMAP”? You’ll want to enable IMAP!

Click “Enable IMAP” – this will reveal some more options, I’d recommend leaving them all set to default, as this will mean you cannot accidentally delete things from your server when deleting from your outlook (“deleted” items get archived, not removed, on the default setup)

Hit “Save Changes” at the bottom.

You’ll see that there is now a new “Configuration Instructions” link under the IMAP is enabled part. Click this link to open the Google settings page for IMAP. Here is the link.

Open your mail client (Outlook)

You’ll want to add a new account to your Outlook. Where you do this will depend on your exact version of Outlook. On the new one, its on the top page. On the “older” versions, it is somewhere like Tools > Accounts.

Use the configuration instructions below to setup your mail.

NOTE – you will NOT be able to just enter your username and password. You’ll need to hit “enter additional settings ” or “Manual configuration or server type” or similar, in order to configure the below. Otherwise, it won’t work!